At least 24 Indian sailors were taken hostage by Somali pirates who hijacked a Panamanian-flagged bulk carrier near Seychelles on Thursday, just a week after a vessel with two Indians among the crew was seized by the sea brigands.

The MV Al Khaliq was India-managed and had a sizeable number of Indian crew on board, Noel Choong, head of International Maritime Bureau’s Piracy Reporting Centre, said in Kuala Lumpur.

A NATO spokesman in London said, “There were 26 crew on board — 24 Indians and two Burmese. The 33,000 DWT bulk carrier was hijacked this morning in the Somali Basin... This is the third vessel hijacked by Somali pirates during the last one week,” he added.

The EU’s anti-piracy naval force has said in a statement that the incident took place 180 nautical miles west of Seychelles. They said six pirates are on board the ship, which is being followed by “two attack skiffs (boats)”. The mother ship of the pirates has been taken on board with the help of a crane, it said.

Two Indians were among an unspecified number of crew on board a ship, MV Kota Wajar, which was hijacked by Somali pirates on October 15 in the Indian Ocean.

Choong said Thursday’s hijacking came just after the Piracy Reporting Centre had sent a warning to all ships transiting east and south of Somalia, off Kenya and off Tanzania. The centre’s warning noted that Somali pirates were now “very actively” attacking vessels very far off the coast of Somalia.

... contd.